Post by squeamishossifrage on Mar 18, 2023 9:46:56 GMT
Arty Bollox - a brief introduction.
Arty means pertaining to art, and bollox is clearly a modern web idiom for the term 'bollocks', which is itself a corruption of the middle-English 'ballocks', pertaining to the male genitalia. This is the term we will use here.
The minute the word 'art' is used, the mind of the educated connoisseur immediately flies back to that greatest of all revolutions, the Renaissance, and of course, when one thinks 'Renaissance', one thinks 'Florence' - but what of the 'ballocks'? Well, in fact they are there in great abundance, such that those of even the most limited visual acuity may observe them throughout the city.
I shall illustrate my point with three examples, firstly in the Piazza della Signoria, where we find a copy of the famous seventeen foot statue of the Biblical David, the original of which stands in the Galleria dell'Accademia. Although this copy lacks the brilliant genius of the original, the ballocks are in clear display. The seventeen feet refers to the statue, not the ballocks.
Next we come to the Orpheus of Bartolommeo Bandinelli in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, who provides the art in spades, although he is not as well known as some of his contemporaries, having lived under the huge shadow cast by Michelangelo Buonarotti. The artistry of this representation is as obvious to the viewer as are the ballocks, thrust forward by the aggressive attitude of the hips.
Our final example comes from the Loggia dei Lanzi, again in Florence, just off the Piazza della Signoria. Known as The Pasquino Group, it shows either Menelaus carrying the body of Patroclus or Ajax carrying the body of Achilles, so we do not know whose actual ballocks they are, but their prominence earns them a place in this brief review.
You wanted 'Arty Bollox'? You got it!
Arty means pertaining to art, and bollox is clearly a modern web idiom for the term 'bollocks', which is itself a corruption of the middle-English 'ballocks', pertaining to the male genitalia. This is the term we will use here.
The minute the word 'art' is used, the mind of the educated connoisseur immediately flies back to that greatest of all revolutions, the Renaissance, and of course, when one thinks 'Renaissance', one thinks 'Florence' - but what of the 'ballocks'? Well, in fact they are there in great abundance, such that those of even the most limited visual acuity may observe them throughout the city.
I shall illustrate my point with three examples, firstly in the Piazza della Signoria, where we find a copy of the famous seventeen foot statue of the Biblical David, the original of which stands in the Galleria dell'Accademia. Although this copy lacks the brilliant genius of the original, the ballocks are in clear display. The seventeen feet refers to the statue, not the ballocks.
Next we come to the Orpheus of Bartolommeo Bandinelli in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, who provides the art in spades, although he is not as well known as some of his contemporaries, having lived under the huge shadow cast by Michelangelo Buonarotti. The artistry of this representation is as obvious to the viewer as are the ballocks, thrust forward by the aggressive attitude of the hips.
Our final example comes from the Loggia dei Lanzi, again in Florence, just off the Piazza della Signoria. Known as The Pasquino Group, it shows either Menelaus carrying the body of Patroclus or Ajax carrying the body of Achilles, so we do not know whose actual ballocks they are, but their prominence earns them a place in this brief review.
You wanted 'Arty Bollox'? You got it!
